The Retranslation Of Literary Classics Viewed From The Point Of Modern Hermeneutics

Classics, model works of authority, produce a great influence on human beings. The establishment of a classic usually takes time; because it needs to be continually interpreted by people and its value should be proved through these interpretations. Hermeneutics is exactly a science of comprehension and interpretation. It begins with the interpretation of religious texts and stretch to all kinds of texts, especially literary texts. It’s now widely used in literary and translation studies.Since the17th and18th century, with the widening and deepening of human mind and culture, literature progressively gets over the limits of languages, nations and civilizations, for that the universal literary classics appear. Translation as the direct motor of this phenomenon acquires an increasing theory importance and is no longer regarded as a simple transformation of words. The modern hermeneutics, presented partly by Gadamer establishes the relationship between interpretation and translation, considering the essence of translation as a comprehension of subjectivity, developing a new field for translation studies.From the point of modern hermeneutics, every interpretation of literary classics is a kind of translation. Thus literary classics are formed during translations and should be translated by several times. In a transcultural context, these translations are presented to be retranslation.The retranslation of literary classics is a phenomenon to which we should pay a great attention. It is not just the repeating translations of some famous works. It can be diachronic and synchronic; it manifests the incertitude and historicity of the meaning of text as well as the multiple positions of translators and anticipating horizons of readers; it reflects not only the different interpretations of translator as individual, but also the evolution of cultural elements such as language, style, ideology and aesthetic. These have close bonds to the process understanding-interpreting and to transcultural communication of human beings. Hermeneutics, with its important notions or concepts such as prejudice, fusion of horizons, effective history (Gadamer), dialogue/conversation with text, subjectivity, inter subjectivity (Gadamer and Ricoeur), the opening of text (Gadamer and Eco) and other formulations or theories closely related such as four steps of translation (Steiner) and the anticipating horizon (Jauss), offer to the study of retranslation of literary classics an overall and constructive angle.The first part of my paper will discuss the relationship between literary classics and retranslation as well as the classification of retranslation, with analyses of two examples of translation in Chinese of French literary classics, La Dame aux Camelias and Le rouge et le Noir. The property of literature determines the urgent need of interpretations during the establishment of literary classics, which at the same time historical and subjective, are not accomplished by one time. The transcultural transplantation of classics needs translation, which is also historical and subjective, divided in diachronic retranslation and synchronic retranslation.The second part is about the legitimacy of retranslation, which is related to the incertitude of meaning of text, the active subjects and its rapport with translation. The incertitude of meaning of text includes its opening and historicity, the first provides a space to retranslation and the second explain the necessity of retranslation. Translator and reader are both active subjects of translation, whose horizons engender retranslation. Not only the regret of translation is to be repaired by the retranslation, but also its development needs the retranslation. French translation critic Meschonnic said that "The history of translation is a history of retranslations." Translation is always historically presented in the form of retranslations.The third part talks about influences of retranslation, including those on literary classic and those on horizon of the target cultures. Literary classics are diffused and enriched by retranslation; the fusion of horizons of translators, readers and critics is realized during the movements between present and history, national and foreign.Retranslation has a history as long as translation. Its theory problems should be highly regarded as those of translation. We should have a fair, open and enlightened attitude to retranslation, understanding that real retranslation is necessary and beneficial, which allows us to recognize and construct literary classics, to widen and deepen our horizon as well as to respond to the time. We should know that besides hermeneutics, retranslation is to be studied by other theories. But we should also realize that hermeneutics is a philosophical school and it is not to be used directly as a translation theory. The study of retranslation depends by all means on the development of translation theory, which also improves the development of translation theory.